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Atlantic City eminent domain case moves forward as Revel closes

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Charles Birnbaum, the owner of this three-story home on Oriental Avenue in Atlantic City, is fighting a state agency that plans to take the property through eminent domain for a mixed-use development project.
(The Star-Ledger)

ATLANTIC CITY — A man fighting a state agency's plan to seize his Atlantic City home near the soon-to-be-shuttered Revel Casino Hotel today returned to court, where lawyers sparred over the influence the bankrupt resort had on the development project at the center of the case.

One of the lawyers representing Charles Birnbaum, the 67-year-old Hammonton man who owns the home in the shadow of the Revel casino, said today that the resort was intended as an anchor of the development in the area and questioned the logic behind still condemning his client's property if the resort is not open and drawing business to the area.

"There’s something perverse about saying that if the Revel is successful, our only solution is to destroy the Birnbaums’ longtime family home. If the Revel is unsuccessful our only solution is to destroy the Birnbaums’ longtime family home. That can’t possibly be the answer to both situations," Robert McNamara, a senior attorney with the Virginia-based Institute for Justice, said after the court hearing today.

Stuart Lederman, the attorney representing the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, argued today that the project — for which there is a general outline but not detailed plans — was not solely related to the Revel.

He said one of the main goals of creating the tourism district in the city, is to develop non-casino revenue for the city.

“It’s unfortunate the casinos are closing,” Lederman said after the hearing. “That’s the reality that everybody has to deal with and the city needs to survive, or thrive really, on something other than relying on casino revenue and casino jobs.” He said groups of parcels of land are needed to attract developers.

Birnbaum's home is among the properties the CRDA has targeted for acquisition in a neighborhood that sits just a few blocks away from the Absecon Inlet. Soon after the Revel opened its door to the public more than two years ago, the state agency approved a measure to move forward with the mixed-use project there.

Birnbaum’s parents bought the three-story brick home in Atlantic City in 1969. He now uses the first floor as a piano studio and a base for his piano-tuning business and rents the upstairs apartments. Birnbaum has said that the home, where his mother was murdered in the late 1990s, was never for sale.

Among the concerns raised by Birnbaum’s lawyers — as well as a group of tenants contesting the CRDA’s actions in the neighborhood — is the lack of detail in the agency’s plan. The agency has not outlined a specific purpose for which they want to take Birnbuam’s home.

Lederman argues the agency doesn’t need to.

“The issue of specificity we believe is not an issue in this case and shouldn’t be an issue in this case,” he said. “The issues are and as we believe they are properly framed before the court now is a legislative-mandated purpose of creating a tourism district. Is that a valid public purpose? That’s what the statute says.”

McNamara said the CRDA can create a tourism district but what he questions is why the agency is condemning these properties.

“You’re not condemning everything in the tourism district,” he said. “You’re not condemning most of the things on Charlie’s block. Why? And they say we don’t have to answer that.”

After today’s hearing, Birnbaum said he hoped to prevail in the case.

“This is a home that has overcome storms of 1944, ‘62,” he said. “The house survived [Hurricane] Sandy and I hope it will survive the CRDA.”

Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez scheduled a final hearing in the case for Oct. 6 at 10 a.m.